Raid Rx: Healing Ulduar and what to expect
by Matt Low 
Apr 12th 2009 at 2:00PM
Raid Rx has returned from retirement! Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a new WoW blog for all things UI, macro, and addon related. Ulduar is almost here! Are you prepared?
The patch for Ulduar is imminent. There's no release date yet. Personally I believe it will land sometime this month. Healing assignments has just gotten more complicated. Incoming damage is more than what's currently in the game. To cap it all off, mana regen's been slightly nerfed.
So here's a quick summary of what to expect and how to counteract for it. I've participated in some of the normal mode Ulduar raids and a few heroic mode Ulduar raids. It's tough. The level of complexity and effort required is somewhere along the pre-nerf Hyjal and Black Temple days.
Come to think of it, when I participated in these encounters early on, the game designers felt that it was too easy. So they ramped up the amount of healing overall that needs to be done since the last time I tried these out. Ho boy!
Mana regen
Get used to using these instead of Flask of the Frost Wyrm. Two things happening here are the fact that regeneration for most of the healing classes have been affected in some way and boss fights are expected to get lengthier. We haven't quite returned to the 20 minute Illidan encounters yet.
To help ease the stress, your guild may wish to bring another healer or two.
Damage output
Expect overall raid damage to increase. It seems that every raid boss is going to have an AoE spell or an effect that will damage the whole raid. The raid group as a whole is going to have to take steps to buy as much time for the healers to get to them. Yes, stay out of the fires. This time around, it's also stay out of the falling snow.
Again, bring another healer. My guild will not be going in with less than 7 healers.
Damage mitigation
This is where the Priests in your guild will shine (hopefully). I have a soft spot for Discipline Priests (since I play one). Expect bosses who have the ability to two shot your tanks. Having a Priest can increase the odds of survival due to their Power Word: Shields. Instead of being two shot, they'll have to take three in order to go down.
Although a Priest isn't exactly a requirement, I'd say it's a strong recommendation.
Complex assignments
Assigning healing isn't necessarily going to be harder or more difficult. It's going to require much more finesse. The closest thing that comes close would be your OS3D encounter. Every healer has a job. Not only that, certain healers have to do certain things at certain times for certain results. Coordination demands will be going up. The brute force healing methods being used aren't going to last very long into Ulduar.
A classic example of this is Kael'Thas in Tempest Keep. That fight was a virtual nightmare the first time I did it.
Augments
This should go without saying. At the moment, I'm gemmed for pure throughput. On a good day I'll have ~2900 spellpower as Holy and after raid buffs and consumables. The gems may need to be dialed back down for extra mana regeneration instead.
This is it folks. We've asked for something harder and more challenging. Welcome to year 2 of raiding. Let's hope we're up to snuff.
Want some more advice for working with the healers in your guild? Raid Rx has you covered with all there is to know! Looking for less healer-centric raiding advice? Take a look at our raiding column Ready Check.Filed under: Raiding, Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
pietrex Apr 12th 2009 2:23PM
I like the fact that Blizzard want to make boss encounters harder, but if they decide to give some of them abilities to two shot tanks, then I want to buy more damage mitigation spells for other healer classes. My guild might have many problems, since we have very few priests.
Stephen Apr 12th 2009 2:57PM
Agreed.
My guild has embraced "bring the player, not the class" so we don't may priests. The bulk of our healing is Pally or Druid. We assumed with that new emphasis as long as we have skilled healers, we'd be fine.
Quark1020 Apr 12th 2009 6:16PM
Have the paladins do hand of sacrifice and bacon themselves. That will help out with the tank.
Though, I feel like I'm the only paladin that ever uses the hand of sacrifice. Still, it has saved so many tanks, even if I never get credit for it.
NemesisCW Apr 13th 2009 2:07PM
@Quark:
They're nerfing Sacrifice. They're making it so that it dissappears after you take 100% of your life from it.
Yes, I used to do this too during certain encounters (Mainly 10man-3drake)
Britonk Apr 12th 2009 3:19PM
Im looking forward to this patch =D
As a holy paladin hoping it will be harder than just spam healing while whispering others about stuff.
Sentient Apr 14th 2009 2:44AM
Lol. I know what you mean. I coached a fresh Holy Pal through a Naxx-25 run (all in whispers) while healing my own in a separate raid ID. Was the most fun I've had in a while.
cb Apr 12th 2009 3:08PM
We don't have that many raiding healing priests, but I trust our druids, paladins, and shamans to work something out!
Sithik Apr 12th 2009 3:20PM
You know, I don't know if the numbers were before or after mitigation, but GC has said tanks will be getting hit for roughly 25k a pop.
I suppose that would be in-line with a few trends I seen happening with alot of talents in 3.1, mostly being talent "changes" (at least for disc/holy priests) your crit/healing overall will do more on targets below 50% hp. I suppose if that's the case then the 25k a pop will be mitigated since all tanks are somewhat capping around 40-50k 25-man raid-buffed.
I personally am looking forward to a more organized set of healing assignments. I despise the fact almost 9/10 pugs can enter naxx and just faceroll across the keyboard and collect free epics. If pugs are concentrated to maybe 9/10 doing 10-man easily and like 4/10 or so able to complete 25-man I'll be a happy camper.
Blizz has absolutely destroyed the need for guilds when you can pug EVERY single encounter in the game by puging it. Yes, you CAN pug 3d sarth granted you can't do it with the majority of the players in the game but it can be pugged.
Verit Apr 12th 2009 3:29PM
Owe my head - you should try again :).
Thrashnak Apr 12th 2009 3:47PM
"Blizz has absolutely destroyed the need for guilds when you can pug EVERY single encounter in the game by puging it. Yes, you CAN pug 3d sarth granted you can't do it with the majority of the players in the game but it can be pugged."
That's quite possibly the dumbest comment I've heard yet. PuG raiding the hardest content in the game has been around since vanilla wow and guilds are still around. The first C'thun kill on my old server was a PuG.
PuG's doing content like that aren't your typical PuG. They are generally the best players from top guilds getting together. It's only considered a PuG because it's players from multiple guilds (more often than not, there is at least one guild that has a large percentage of the group). It's not just a bunch of random people asking in /trade for a Sarth 3D group and being successful.
Sithik Apr 12th 2009 4:05PM
Thrash, you completely misunderstood the point of that comment.
I wasn't saying pugs should not be able to do that content. I wasn't saying sarth3d shouldn't be puggable but by having it puggable by 5/10 typical pugs is something that shouldn't be doable.
The pugs you are referring to are an exception from the word "pug" the meaning of "pug" to me, is people who are in the guilds like "icanleechfreeepicswhiledoing1kdpsin25manraids"
Falcrist Apr 12th 2009 5:54PM
"Thrash, you completely misunderstood the point of that comment."
To put it bluntly, I think you're the one who misunderstood.
Sarth3D is not, in fact, within the reach of the average pug. Unless you're talking about a pug with an unusually high number of players from serious raiding guilds, but you specifically said that that's not the kind of pug you are talking about. To put it another way if you're doing OS3D and your average DPSer is doing under 3k, you're probably screwed.
There were weekly pugs of BT on my server for a while. Hell, one or two of them actually downed Illidan. This doesn't mean he was puggable like Naxx is puggable. That content may not have been uber-hard like Sunwell, but it wasn't exactly a walk in the park.
Does all this mean that Blizzard has "destroyed the need for guilds"? No, not really. Most pugs make me want to kill fluffy bunnies en masse. Suffice it to say I'm in a guild, and no bunnies have been slain by me recently.
Hansbo Apr 12th 2009 6:08PM
So basically, what you're saying is that half of the PUG's attempting to do sarth3d succeeds?
I would very much like to know what realm you're on.
csdx Apr 13th 2009 10:26AM
"I wasn't saying sarth3d shouldn't be puggable but by having it puggable by 5/10 typical pugs is something that shouldn't be doable."
No, seriously what server are you on that the average player is that caliber?
Matt J Apr 14th 2009 2:55PM
@Falcrist
http://www.xgenstudios.com/play/bunny-invasion-2
I find this works well for my bunny slaughtering urges. =D
Gondir Apr 12th 2009 3:34PM
Solid article apart from the fact that Flask of Distilled Wisdom gives almost the same regen as Pure Mojo (trough replenishment), and gives you at least Spell Crit (and +Healing depending on your class) that is better for true min/max :)
masterraistlin Apr 12th 2009 3:36PM
Sounds good Matticus. Looking forward to this . I'll probably get flamed for this here, but hopefully this stops the casual scrub guilds in their tracks.
Sithik Apr 12th 2009 3:45PM
Absolutely not man, my comments earlier we're directed at pugs and scrub guilds alike.
True raiders should be rewarded more-so than the scrubs.
Just so everyone is aware, a scrub is NOT considered a casual IMO.
Daedhir Apr 12th 2009 3:53PM
Okay, here's the part I guess I don't get.
How does it affect you when others are able to clear bosses and enjoy raid content? Does it detract from your enjoyment when others are enjoying themselves?
Schadenfreude at its best, clearly.
Sithik Apr 12th 2009 4:13PM
Well, the only real comment I can bring to the table in reply to your question is: skill. These type of players/guilds have the skill to be able to screw in a lightbulb backwards. I COMPLETELY understand that Blizzard is a business and there will never be a SWP again sadly to "reach" to and eventually with time, patience and SKILL complete. Hard-modes, with the exception a very very small percent do not require SKILL.
I'm not saying they shouldn't be able to see/clear the content, but by allowing them to go into a raid with the same dps that a heroic geared tank they absolutely NEVER have to actually learn how to play. Should people HAVE to do 5-6kdps to clear content? No. Should they have to at least be able to beat the tank in dps? Absolutely.
These are the same people that degrade the game instead of help it. I understand it's all a business and blizzard will cater to the money and that's completely ok with me. I'm just stating my opinion of raiding.